Jana Spicka and Women Getting Real Ministries
Posts tagged trust
Don’t Scramble. Follow.
Sep 2nd
Don’t scramble. Follow.
Simple words. Big, hairy, audacious way to live. Scrambling and striving is innate, ingrained. Expected and applauded. By the world, that is.
Following is scary, unsure, uncertain and certainly out of your control. But whose life is it anyway?
Weren’t we crucified with Christ? And now, we don’t live anymore? Our demands for control got nailed to the tree. Right?
Want to know if you are simply doing life the Jesus way when He said, “Follow Me” ?
Pay attention to your fear, anger, and need to know the outcomes. They are dead give-aways that you really, really, really think you are in charge.
Not only did Jesus say He would never leave you, He also said you couldn’t add one hour to your life or an inch to your height by worrying. He implied, why fret when when you can trust?
Fretting comes from fear of being alone and on your own. Trusting comes when you know you are in His hands. And it is the only and best place to be.
“Let not your heart be troubled. Trust in God. Trust also in Me” John 14:1
There's a Bigger Picture You Can't See
Jul 26th
I was praying in the early morning during that half awake, half asleep time. Praying for people and issues, questions and concerns, needs and desires. I ended my time with, “Lord I really need to hear from You. I need to know what You have to say about all these things.”
I rolled over in the bed and heard this line from a song:
“There’s a bigger picture you can’t see
You don’t have to change the world
Just trust in me…”
I was fully awake, instantly.
Here I was mulling and turning over my plans. Could I — should I —how will I? And God was talking about His plan followed by one instruction: Just trust in Me.
I thought I was. I would have told you I was. But hearing that one phrase in light of all my murmurings made me question myself. Am I really trusting Him? Are you?
When I got out of bed, I went and found the song that had “magically” popped into my head. Then I listened to this song over and over for several days. It retells the old, old story of people just like me and you. People to whom God said, “Me and you are gonna do big things.” And the people responded just like us — with excuses and but-but-but. Here is my favorite part of the song. Each person laid out their objections of why God’s plan won’t work and questioned Him on how He was going to use them with all their limitations.
“It’s not your problem, God replied. And the rest is history.”
If you go back through the Bible, go back through history, you see His mighty hand doing things that don’t make sense to us. Achieving and completing great works that don’t add up to us. That part is not your problem. His ask of them was the same as His ask of us, “Just trust in Me.” That is your problem. Work on the ‘trust in Me’ part.
You can’t trust your plan until it is His plan. You can’t trust Him until you see, understand and relent the notion that somehow you can do it. Jesus said, “Apart from Me, you can do nothing.” Funny how we spend so much time trying to disprove that comment.
Go listen to “I AM” by Ginny Owens. You will love the beauty of His big picture. Our trust in Him does change the world.
“There’s a bigger picture you can’t see
You don’t have to change the world
Just trust in me…
I am your Creator
I am working out My plan
Through you, I will show them
I AM.”
Pennies from Heaven
Jul 23rd
I had this great God encounter the other day. Charis and I were at the pool and she wanted money for the snack bar. So I handed her a handful of change and she looked at the amount mounded in her hand and declared, “This is plenty.” When I asked her to count it, she didn’t see the point because there were so many coins in her hands. “But some of those are pennies,” I said.
“It’s fine, it’s fine,” she said with a wave of her free hand. (You know your kids were raised in the South when f-i-n-e is a three syllable word. It’s beautiful to hear.)
Anyway, we separated the coins into like piles and I helped her add up the quarters, dimes, nickels and pennies. Once she heard the magic number of $1.25, which is the exact cost of a frozen Swiss Miss Chocolate Bar, she scraped all the change into her hand and was off. Contented and provided for.
Five minutes later, I am talking to Beth who is preparing to go BACK to Zimbabwe for six months this time to serve at the youth camp. We were working on her financial needs, listing out the room fee, phone, airfare, etc. Her magic amount was a bit more than $1.25.
That’s when the God encounter happened.
“Beth, think about it. When Charis came to me asking for money, she was never one time concerned about whether I had enough money. Her only concern was a yes or no answer from me. And once my answer was yes, it was on me to make it happen,” I said.
“Don’t miss this. She didn’t even care about the pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters. To her, it was more about Mom’s got it taken care of. Sure for you, it’s not pennies and quarters but it’s $100s, $200s, $1000s. But to God it is the same. It’s all pocket change to Him. ”
He said yes. It’s on Him to provide the change. And that is what it is. Pocket change from our Dad. A day at the snack bar with His kids.
Ask Big. You have a Big, Big, Dad.
Our Prayers for Zimbabwe
May 7th
I told my friend that my heart is so different and I haven’t even left for Zimbabwe yet. God has convinced and convicted me of so much. He keeps talking about trust and surrender. His life in my life. Trust that His life is in me when I surrender my life. Funny how those two things always hang around together. Think hand in glove. Think air in lungs.
But as we draw closer to leaving, would you pray with us? My heart’s cry has become the same things for two different groups: The team going and the people staying. Our needs are much the same, and our God is definitely the same. So join us as we ask God to pour out His favor on us and on them:
Health — Protection and strength, ability to sleep so our bodies serve us well. That those we visit will be healed and renewed in physical strength.
Revelation — We need a greater vision of God’s loving relationship. So do they.
Sustaining Power — In the strain of daily living that we, and they, might ask for, expect and receive the grace from God who sustains all things by the power of His word.
Encouragement — Praying for God to strip off the lies and traps that keep us and them numb, silenced and defeated. That we all would experience the courage and comfort of the Holy Spirit.
Here is the scripture that God gave me in answer to the question, “What are You up to in Zimbabwe?” Hallelujah, what a Warrior God.
5 This is what God the LORD says—
he who created the heavens and stretched them out,
who spread out the earth and all that comes out of it,
who gives breath to its people,
and life to those who walk on it:
6 “I, the LORD, have called you in righteousness;
I will take hold of your hand.
I will keep you and will make you
to be a covenant for the people
and a light for the Gentiles,
7 to open eyes that are blind,
to free captives from prison
and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.
8 “I am the LORD; that is my name!
I will not give my glory to another
or my praise to idols.
9 See, the former things have taken place,
and new things I declare;
before they spring into being
I announce them to you.”
Isaiah 42:5-9
An Invitation to Trust
Apr 21st
My friend Toni unknowingly blew my head off one day when she was talking about obedience. She said, “We have a wrong thought about obedience. It is not a hard, mean thing. It is kind of like when you were a kid and your dad or mom says, ‘Hey I am going to the store, you wanna come?’ “
It’s an invitation. An invitation to trust the One who is asking you to come along.
I have brewed on this conversation with my insightful friend for a long time now. Every time I hear Chuck invite one of the girls to go on an errand, the Lord takes my understanding a little deeper. Why does Chuck ask? He wants to have some one-on-one time. He wants to talk to them about something specific. He has a surprise for them. He just enjoys their company.
Rarely do the girls fire off these questions:
Where are we going?
How will we get there?
How long will we be gone?
How much will it cost?
How will I pay for this?
How am I supposed to do this alone?
You see, all they know and rest in is that their dad, imperfect but loving dad, has asked them to go somewhere. The details don’t really matter because it is about the two of them going on an adventure.
If you told them, “you have to go”, the reactions would be different wouldn’t they? That Self kicks up in a moment. And this is the beauty, and the scandal, of our free will choosing of God. Our perfect Loving Father has asked us to trust His leading, trust His way. Trust Him. Even when we don’t understand the details and we can’t foresee the outcome. Jesus said, “Follow me.” He did not say, “You have to follow me.” He invited them into an adventure. And even though His followers surely did not know the future, they saw in His eyes something they could not refuse.
Where are you chafing? What are you fighting for or against? Who are you fighting? And what if you just looked instead into the eyes of God? What if you listened again to what He said, ‘Follow me’, and without throwing out a thousand rebuttals, you just trusted the Heart that was asking you to come on an adventure?
9 Do not be like the horse or the mule,
which have no understanding
but must be controlled by bit and bridle
or they will not come to you.
Psalm 32:9